Courage is Magic

Chapter 9

Caution: Some dark scenes ahead due to battle, this is all done in John's self defense. Reader discression is advised if you are not fond of fight scenes that have certain details within.

I am not going to leave him to die!

I quickly ducked under his leap and swung my knife at his stomach. It succeeded in wounding him. It crashed behind me. I turned around to face it. It snarled at me and tried to attack again. It tried to catch me off guard by sprinting right at me, but I sidestepped it with ease. When it slowed down, I ran up to it and swung my knife at it in an attempt to end it. I was unlucky and missed my target, earning him a free shot at my leg with a claw. It stung for a bit, but I ignored the pain easily and gave him a knife to his flank as I retreated.

I turned to face it and glared at it. While it glared back at me, I gave him a smile. It growled again and charged at me like before. I side stepped him again, but it turned out that he was feinting and managed to jump onto me and start clawing my legs in an attempt to disable me.

The wolf was smart, I gave him that. So I punched it quickly in the snout to stun it and threw it off me before it could continue to assault me. The claw marks it gave me were too light to make much of a difference, and it somehow knew that. I quickly managed to get up as he was leaping at where I was located on the floor and dodged by stepping to the side of the arc. I gave it another slash with the knife and backed away from it. I smiled as I pulled out a second knife because the first one was already covered in red blood. He got up and stared at me for a moment. I leveled a knife at him and smiled. He surprised me by barking once at one of his lap-wolves (heh... pun) that stood by. That wolf ran straight at me, and I killed it quickly by throwing the bloodied knife into its skull. It crashed to the floor as I ran up and retrieved my knife from its skull as quickly as I threw it. The alpha wolf glared at me, and I responded with an equally dark glare. It snarled loudly and charged at me again. I jumped over him landed. Without missing a beat, I turned to slice one of its hind legs near the heel in attempt to stun it. I managed to nick him, but it was too fast and avoided the rest of the slash.

I was annoyed at the fact that the cut wasn't deep enough to slow it. It turned to me with anger in its eyes. I raised my knife and pointed at it again. It responded by barking multiple times. I turned and saw the other three wolves charge at me all at once.

I quickly moved to stab one of the wolves that leapt at me through the neck, resulting in its blood going over my hoof. The second wolf managed to get behind me and leap onto my back and began clawing and biting my wings (it hurt a lot). I quickly maneuvered myself and rolled, slamming that wolf's head into the ground, resulting in a loud crack. I no longer felt it trying to tear my wings off, so I assumed that I broke its neck or skull. It didn’t really matter to me, as long as it wasn’t trying to kill me.

When I got up and looked at it, I was right. The wolf's head was dislocated in a way that it obviously shouldn't be. I forgot about the third wolf, almost. It managed to leap onto me and start clawing my legs and stomach. I fought it for a moment before getting a knife between the ribs. Its blood slowly dripped onto me through its wound before landing on me, dead.

I shoved the dead body off of me and checked myself while I had the chance after the wolf's assault. I found that the second wolf had enough time on my back to render my wings pretty much useless for the rest of the fight. Not that I would use them anyways, but it might have helped if I didn't see bloody feathers all over the floor near me. I turned to the wolf with a very angry glare, a glare that threatened to kill it for doing something so cheap.

It simply gave me a wolfy smile, but its eyes told a different story. He was angry that I killed its pack, and it was going to get revenge for them by killing me. I knew that I was severely wounded, but I had to fight on to protect Morning from it. I made a quick check at Morning's body and saw that it regained its full color. The wolf used my moment of distraction to charge at me.

I picked up a nearby knife that I dropped and ignored the protest in my muscles as I jumped over the wolf again. I didn’t land as gracefully as last time, so I crashed to the floor. The wolf quickly turned around and capitalized on this advantage by attempting to bite my neck. I quickly had my knife meet his teeth before he got close to my neck, and pushed him back. He charged at me again, but I was not in any shape to avoid his attack this time. He clawed me very deeply in one leg and on my right wing before I forced it away again. In a rage, I slashed it across the snout twice and it retreat quickly. I glared at it once again and decided that enough was enough. The wolf gave me the same glare and I decided to take a page out of his book. I challenged him in one last strike, and the wolf waited for me to move. I pulled out a knife and ran at him directly for one last attack. The wolf ran at me to finish me off, and we both met in the middle. I slashed him at the neck quickly, but he gave me a very deep claw wound to the chest. As we passed each other, I turned back and saw that he was still standing. I started to panic, but then the wolf's head slowly revealed the cut that went straight through its neck and the head rolled off and hit the floor with a thud.

I collapsed in exhaustion from the battle, with my adrenaline slowly fading away; I started to notice how much it hurt from the wounds. The pain started to slowly fade away as I grew tired. I couldn't move, and I was bleeding badly. I promised everyone that I would return home, but I guess that it may not happen. I was too wounded to move, and I was also alone. As I started to close my eyes to sleep, I saw a glimpse of a blue pony with a brown mane and brown eyes looking at me in worry before everything blurred and I could no longer keep my eyes open. I let my head fall down and hit the floor softly.

'I'm sorry Midnight... but I guess I have met my end here. I failed... I failed everyone.' I thought to myself in sadness, as I waited to see the light that would take me away.

John... you have fought well and you deserve to return home; but I guess it is now up to me to make sure that it happens. I am going to wake up Morning, and point him in the right direction to save you from this grim fate. Do not give up. You are needed in this world.